Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this debate and acknowledge that the Minister provided the time to have statements on mental health services. It is timely. I wish to put in context the conflict that exists with regard to the Government's commitment to, and funding of, this service. The cut in the marginal rate of tax, for example, was lauded by many but one could argue that it has been wiped out by increases in car insurance and medical health insurance. In doing that the Government further put off the potential to provide the type of funding that is required in this area.

It is also against the background of there being a 6% growth rate in the economy this year. While that and the progress in regard to inward investment are to be welcomed, and while favourable exchange rates assist that process, society must acknowledge, as this House has heard umpteen times, there is a crisis in the provision of housing throughout the country, a crisis in regard to waiting lists and the provision of accident and emergency services in our hospitals, and a crisis in the funding of local authorities, which have been told to raise commercial rates and property taxes to meet the shortfall, while Irish Water is subvented with regard to its rates and subvented further through car tax revenue. My point is that while that continues apace, the Government has to make priorities and has to decide where it will focus its energies and its funding to meet the demands placed on it. In this area, it is quite disappointing that, while the programme for Government committed to an annual ring-fenced €35 million in funding for community mental health services, this commitment was broken in 2014, with funding reduced to €20 million.

The whole area of mental health is one which has, in a sense, been radicalised in recent years, which we commend and welcome. At this point, it is only right and proper to pay tribute to and commend the various NGOs in this area which work tirelessly and give great service to the State and to many of its inhabitants. I particularly want to congratulate Jigsaw Offaly for its Pride of Place award last week, and I also pay tribute to the many other voluntary bodies which, as I said, work tirelessly in this area and help State services to provide the assistance that is needed by the many people affected by mental health issues. I also want to acknowledge and commend the many people who have spoken out about their own issues in this area, in particular the many prominent figures in sport, business and so forth who have helped to alleviate the stigma that has historically been associated with illnesses in this field.

While that continues apace, and it is a great and welcome turnaround in Irish society, I do not believe the Government is giving this issue the priority it deserves. I acknowledge the effort and commitment of the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, in this area, and I am sure she is fighting the good fight with regard to the services which she has responsibility for funding and assisting. However, it would appear that drive, commitment and support does not feature highly enough in the Government's reckoning. After coming into office in what were, as we acknowledge, difficult times, it made a commitment in the programme for Government to ring-fence a certain amount of funding to meet the demands placed on it by virtue of the A Vision for Change strategy. As I said, it is very disappointing that this commitment has been lost.

As one of many Members of the House who will be a candidate facing the electorate in the coming months, I feel obliged to say that we need to reaffirm our commitment to this area and we need to state categorically where we stand. From the perspective of my political organisation, Fianna Fáil will reform and restructure the National Office for Suicide Prevention as a distinct entity within the mental health authority, giving it a ring-fenced budget, performance targets and an independent employment system, with clear interdepartmental input at Government and Secretary General level. We would want to enhance the size and role of the National Office for Suicide Prevention to undertake matters such as the development of a new national strategy and the creation of a national 24-hour helpline. We would propose to increase the number of resource officers for suicide prevention, enhance their role and link them directly to the National Office for Suicide Prevention. We would want to implement a system of GP practice whereby the prescription of antidepressant medication has to be reviewed on a monthly basis until the GP is satisfied the medication is the best course of action. We would want to establish out-of-hours emergency social worker teams across Ireland.

To refer back to our own role within our constituencies when we meet people affected who wish to avail of services, the difficulties they and their families have in accessing those services is something we have to reiterate and put on the record. For example, with regard to the backlog in the waiting list for psychologists, figures released to us earlier in the summer appear to show that 5,432 people were waiting more than three months for an appointment with a psychologist. Those figures are just a glimpse into the unfortunate and dire situation that people using the mental health services are facing. People have already been told by their GPs that they have been referred to a specialist for assessment. What is worse is the fact that more than 1,000 people are forced to wait more than a year.

On the issue of child mental health, it is very challenging for us all to meet the demands placed on the services and to acknowledge those children should be to the forefront of any policy. The HSE figures released at the end of last year suggested there were more than 3,000 children and teenagers waiting to access mental health services in the community, and more than 400 of those were waiting over a year. This has to be a great cause of concern and relates, more than likely, to the lack of staff, which contributes to rising waiting lists. I know the HSE said it has had difficulty in recruiting staff, which I find unfortunate and amazing. I would like to know from the Minister of State what progress has been made in recent times in order to address the supposed difficulty the HSE claims exists. With regard to the community mental health teams for children and teenagers, it appears these have just 42% of the number of staff recommended in the Government's own mental health strategy, A Vision for Change, which represents a 3% drop-off in staff compared to the previous year.

Those are some simple and obvious insights into the situation with regard to the provision of services throughout the country, and particularly in my constituency, given the national figures mentioned are evident in my community. These are issues which I have an obligation to voice and share with the Minister of State in the hope that the Government can respond to this in a positive manner and reaffirm the commitment contained in the programme for Government and, more importantly, reaffirm the monetary commitment it made in order to give effect to all that was contained within A Vision for Change. I expect there would be an audit of that in the short term and that the Government would make a statement on the goals set within it which have yet to be achieved, or which have not been funded.

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